European Consortium Heading for Guaranteed Energy Saving Measures

Target group includes public property administrations, private building owners and energy consultants

Pilot projects to be tested in 14 countries with support from experienced EPC facilitators

Energy-wasting lighting, oversized heating systems, ventilation in permanent operation – in many of the roughly five million apartment and non-residential buildings in Germany energy is wasted day by day. This is also true for other European countries. The EU-project guarantEE - coordinated by the Berlin Energy Agency (BEA) - aims to make a difference. Within guarantEE, experienced partners from 14 countries will develop innovative solutions that will enhance business and financing models for energy saving contracting (ESCO).

In order to achieve the European CO2 reduction and energy efficiency targets, the modernisation rate in the building stock has to be increased significantly to overcome the prevailing modernisation backlog in both Germany and Europe. This is due not only because of strained public budgets in many countries. Very often, there is also a lack of know-how and regulatory incentives that could enhance the implementation of necessary energy saving measures.

This is where guarantEE takes action: the cooperating partners will develop innovative business and financing solutions based on the well-applied Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) model. The aim is to trigger a strong roll-out of EPC beyond the public sector and test solutions adequately sharing costs and benefits between tenants, building owners and energy service companies whilst activating private capital for these actions. The innovative energy service models are to be tested in pilot projects, in which the building owners will receive support from experienced EPC facilitators.

Energy Service Contracting (ESC) comprises the outsourced planning, financing, implementation and operational management of highly efficient energy plants with experienced energy service providers. These providers re-finance the full investment in new heating, ventilation, air-conditioning or lighting exclusively with the actually achieved energy savings. To get some safty in planning building owners and service providers enter into a ten years contract maturity.

Following this model EPC has been successfully implemented in the public sector during the last years. The energy costs in public buildings such as schools, hospitals, universities, city halls, cultural event centres, swimming pools and police facilities could be reduced significantly after a modernisation in many European countries and cities. Still EPC is perceived as not being flexible enough by many private clients as contract durations are too long, terminations of agreements are difficult, and the minimum project sizes are too high.

guarantEE will address selected target groups like private building owners, facility managers and energy consultants with workshops and public relations to assess possibilities and implement innovative solutions to make EPC better suited for the private sector.

The guarantEE project’s duration is 3 years and it is being funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. The consortium consists of energy agencies, consulting companies and administrations from Austria, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany.